Outlays vs. Deficit: a Battle in Which the People Always Lose

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2002, the federal 

outlays were approximately equal to the 2023 federal deficit: about

$2 trillion. This includes an adjustment of around $300 billion to 

account for the resultant savings made possible by the Supreme

Court declaring as unconstitutional President Biden's student-loan-

forgiveness program which would have put U.S. taxpayers on the 

hook for the money owed by the college students who borrowed 

the money in order to enroll at college but failed to pay off the 

entirety of their loans. This is like stabbing someone with a long

knife, sticking it in halfway rather than the whole blade length;

does this make the situation only half as bad? But read on ... 

The deficit was around $1.7 trillion because the program was at 

first included in expected spending, so the SCOTUS' decision

was then counted as a spending cut. However, the spending cut

was merely a non-event, meaning that the deficit was actually

$2 trillion. Congressional "smoke and mirrors" at play.

This all ads up to (no pun intended) the $2 trillion deficit for 2002,

and Uncle Sam having added as much to the debt as were its

total expenditures in 2002. And April 15 is looming large once more.

Sickening.

MEM